SWTOR: Or an example of how NOT to provide customer service

So, finally, I’m done. Yup, done… Took me about a month to get tired of SWTOR and their heavy handed moderation, their inefficient support, their pathetically horrible problems. Tomorrow, I’ll be on the phone with Paypal, getting charges reversed, because, unfortunately, that is the ONLY way to make them see what is going on

Problem 1: closing tickets before they are resolvedAs a customer service representative, if I closed any ticket before resolution, I’d expect a strong scolding from my employers. No, really. Then, I’d expect my own job to be handed to me. I mean, this is how the world works, right? Or at least how it’s supposed to work. Ticket gets submitted, properly addressed by an agent, and then once everyone agrees it’s resolved, it’s resolved.. Not so here. In fact, so much not so that I’ve had tickets unresolved since just after launch, closed within 48 hours, and then nothing… STILL waiting on issues to be resolved, but God knows, they never will be.

Problem 2: CSR’s NOT reading tickets. They’re just not…
Time and time again, it’s proven that they DON’T read these, that they DON’T bother to show any respect to their customers whatsoever. They put in a C&P response, and that’s it. 1/2 the time those ‘responses’ don’t even come close to what’s going on, or what the ticket is about. No, instead, the customer is given a garbage response that is totally unrelated. Yeah, talk about a LOSE/LOSE situation there

Problem 3: Hours, upon hours on holdI’ll give you the game is new, but , really, do we need to spend hours on hold, just to get ahold of customer service who can’t understand a word of what we’re saying, and we can’t understand? Really? Talk about a waste of your customer’s money, and time.

Problem 4: Heavy Handed moderaton
Want to see how heavy handed? Check this out:
In 10 years of being on forums, I have never had as many ‘warnings’ or ‘infractions’ given as I have in just 30 days on SWTOR. Things like

Bumping threads (once every 12 hours, if that)

Using the word ‘retarded’ (to accurately describe their customer service)

Saying someone is ‘lazy’ , when they’re demanding a LFG tool, instead of using the one that’s there (it’s true, they just want someone to do everything for them)

Cheering for Oceanic servers, by requesting they be moved off of the NA servers (my exact words: Good, get them off of ours). I’m HAPPY that Oceanics can play, but when they take over 2 servers just because they want to, far, far too much

Quoting lyrics from a song (South Park, blame Canada) in response to another’s post… BTW, that “other’s post”, still active to this day

On and on and on I can go. Yeah, maybe it is a slight bit “insensitive”, but you know what? Too bad. The world is FAR too full of this PC bullshit as it is. That’s only < 1/2 the ‘infractions’ or ‘warnings’ I’ve received in 30 days. Like I said, in ten years (and I’m on god knows HOW many professional forums), I have never received this many infractions, or warnings, IN TOTAL… Here’s the text from a couple of those posts that were removed… No, really, neither of these were even remotely wrong, but , leave it to EA/BW to kill them off I guess:

Dual spec? Not exactly a priority. Most of us are fine with just one.

UI Customization? As has been said before, they’re working on this. Read blogs, watch videos before you post stuff like this, it’ll make you look less foolish.

Appearance/Macros? Who cares. Really, who cares.

As far as mounts, you’re right. This has to be the most pathetic (and expensive) implementation of mounts I’ve seen ever… Losing your companion while mounted? Yeah, that hurts. What hurts WORSE is when you get dismounted in battle, and that companion fails to summon (happens all the time). Not being able to mount stealthed? Again, ridiculous.
The game does not NEED an LFG tool, it has one.
Just because it’s not automated doesn’t mean it doesn’t have one.
Stop saying the game has no LFG tool, when it does. The problem is that you’re too lazy to use it, you want everything done FOR you.

Post #2:

Originally Posted by ninoss

1. European maintenance hours. Don’t wanna go into details but I think problem is well known.
There is no problem with the EU maintenance hours, exept for entitled individuals throwing a fit, demanding their own maintenance period because they feel special. Yes, it’s during ‘peak time’ for you guys, but you know what? Deal with it. it’s once a week, find something else to do for 8 hours (if it even takes that long). You’re no better than the rest of us, and you don’t deserve your own special attention maintenance period. ENOUGH with the entitlement attitude already, it’s beyond annoying.

Now, let’s get on to the CS garbage in here, shall we?
It is inappropriate to respond to a ticket without reading it.
It is inappropriate to respond to a ticket, claiming “this has been escalated” and then close it, with NO RESOLUTION
It is inappropriate to delete a ticket without even a response. Don’t say it’s “escalated”, because it’s not, it’s flat out deleted. If it WERE escalated, the user would see it (I can STILL see all tickets that CSR’s are claiming as “escalated”).
It is inappropriate to treat a paying customer as poorly as the CSR’s in this game have.

The game itself? Despite a few bugs, I find it playable, and enjoyable. Unfortunately, the community, the moderators, the CSR’s, well, they take it down quite a bit. The trolling that is allowed to continue at that community is astounding, just astounding. The moderation team is hell-bent on making sure that it’s an environment that’s not at all worthwhile. The CSR’s do their part to ensure that your customer satisfaction is pretty low. Unfortunately, it is what it is, and I’m done.

I’ve said all along that this would be the end of the game, unless EA/Bioware picked up the pace on support. Now? I’m putting my money where my mouth is. First call tomorrow will be to the bank, unless this is resolved quickly and efficiently, but I have no doubt, it WON’T be. Sadly, as I said, the only way to get their attention is to hit them where it hurts, in the pocket

TL;DR
I’m leaving, poor customer service would be the reason, and no, you can’t have my shit.